


You Will Not Touch Him

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-01
Updated: 2013-02-01
Packaged: 2017-11-27 20:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/666169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Geppetto vows to protect his son at all costs - as he believes his parents never did for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Will Not Touch Him

For a long time, Geppetto had focused his anger on Jiminy. His parents had been killed through Jiminy’s actions, they were innocent victims of Jiminy’s desire to rid himself of his own parents. And Jiminy could try all he liked, but that was a debt he could never repay.

It was not for a long time afterwards that Geppetto fully understood that some of his anger was directed towards his parents themselves. Jiminy had tried to tell him that he should not feel that way. They had loved him and taken care of him for the first years of his life; that was what he should hold on to.

“Then why,” Geppetto had begun, “if they believed that the so-called elf tonic was the cure that would make them immune to plague, did they take it by themselves without me?”

“I cannot answer that, Geppetto,” Jiminy replied. “Maybe, if they had any doubts that it was what my parents claimed it to be, they wanted to take it themselves first before giving it to you in order that they could protect you if it should turn out not to be a tonic. I don’t know. But you should be thankful that they did not let you take it. They saved you, Geppetto.”

“They did not save me,” Geppetto snapped. “If you are right, then they took it knowing there was a chance that they would not be there for me while I was growing up. How is that saving and protecting me? And if you are wrong, then they cared more for saving themselves than for making sure that I too was protected from the plague. But I will never know, because thanks to you and Rumpelstiltskin, I will never get an opportunity to ask them. But there is one thing I do know. If I am ever blessed with a son, I will do whatever it takes to protect him before myself.”

 

It was not the first time that Geppetto had imagined being parted from Pinocchio. There had been the day when he had believed Pinocchio dead at the jaws of Monstro. But he had been determined that day that Pinocchio should be saved, had tried so hard to persuade him that he should take the one life jacket. Pinocchio had never heard the story of Geppetto’s parents; he would not have understood why Geppetto was so determined that Pinocchio be saved at all costs.

From the moment that Geppetto first heard of the curse that Queen Regina intended to inflict on their world, he had known that he would do whatever it took to make sure that Pinocchio was saved. Even when it had become clear that Snow White’s baby would be born early and Pinocchio’s passage to freedom from the curse would mean that Snow would not be there to guide their saviour, he remained determined in his path. He would not allow Pinocchio to fall victim to the curse; he would not take the chance of him returning to his dead, wooden state. If Snow’s daughter was meant to save them all, it would happen whether Snow was saved or not. Pinocchio could watch over and guide her; eventually he too would save them all. And Geppetto would do for his son what his parents had never done for him.


End file.
